Many Europeans inactive indulge in a kind of unyielding nostalgia for the universalism of the European project. They feel liable on a global scale for the world’s suffering, the advancement of human rights, and the expansion of civilian liberties – our continent’s wealth and colonial past precluding a self-interested abroad policy.
This universalist strain of the European thought has become incompatible with the geopolitical realities of our time. The United States’ retreat from the liberal planet order has eroded global law and led to the decline of post-war multilateral institutions. Even in the face of attacks against our way of life on our own continent, Europe appears powerless. The pursuit of a just global order has revealed itself to be the product of American power.
As Europeans contend with this fresh reality, the old humanitarian internationalism and a fresh sense of realpolitik coexist in a state of paradoxical tension. Tellingly, many of those who advocate an end to the EU’s Association Agreement with Israel besides call for a pragmatic rapprochement with the People’s Republic of China to counterbalance American antagonism – despite the CCP’s cultural cleansing of Uyghurs and the brutal suppression of Tibet.
To escape this paradox, we must reckon with 3 fundamental conditions. First, a secure, prosperous and peaceful European continent is simply a precondition for the global endurance of human rights, democracy, and the regulation of law. As democracy retreats around the world, it is no exaggeration to say that if its flame fades at its birthplace – where it inactive burns most brightly – society may shortly descend back into the despotism that has dominated human past for millennia.
Second, a self-interested abroad policy is essential to avert the collapse of our security, economy and political strategy – especially in an age where multiple powers compete for influence and the thought of “common values” as the basis of unconditional alliances has lost its salience.
And third, as president James Monroe articulated in 1823 for the United States, “with the movements in this hemisphere we are of necessity more immediately connected…” European life has become precariously susceptible to chokepoints, conflict zones, and abroad spheres of influence in its neighbourhood. Russia alone could drive Europe to the brink of catastrophe, utilizing its influence on the European periphery to simultaneously exacerbate the continent’s migration, energy and economical crises.
Europe must so focus its limited resources on its immediate surroundings, where decades of transatlantic dependency, peace dividend-seeking, and the pursuit of false innocence have rendered the continent wholly exposed.
Alarmingly, we are inactive incapable to defend vital trade routes in the Red Sea, even though a blockade would affect the European economy twice as severely as the remainder of the world. erstwhile the Iran and Russia-backed Houthis threatened precisely this scenario, only US military strikes could avert disaster.
At the same time, European efforts to diversify distant from energy supplies and trade passing through this region, as well as from Russia, hang by a thread as Moscow defends its sphere of influence in the South Caucasus – peculiarly through the consolidation of the present authoritarian Russian proxy government in Georgia. The fresh discovery of intentional contamination in Caspian crude in an act of suspected Russian sabotage nearly led to crucial harm at a Romanian OMV refinery – a glaring testament to the vulnerability of the European energy supply.
The fight against illegal migration will proceed to be Sisyphean work so long as Europe does not grow its influence in its neighbourhood. Belarus – with Moscow’s assistance – sent over thirty thousand refugees to the Polish border in 2024, while the Kremlin systematically fuels migration crises in the mediate East.
In times of mounting public debt, a faltering economy, and a brutal invasion on European soil, the continent faces tough choices. To defend vital interests, European abroad and safety policy must follow relentless pragmatism, alternatively than moralistic purity.
The most efficient tool of statecraft at Europe’s disposal is its soft power. The European thought has become an aspiration for the peoples of the continent. alternatively than its performative selfless universalism, it is Europe’s promise of prosperity and freedom for European peoples that has motivated millions in its neighbourhood to prosecute economic, abroad policy, and military alignment and integration.
If Europe plays its cards right, advancing the main origin of its appeal – its own flourishing – while besides deploying this soft power efficiently, it can accomplish a large deal. A pro-European turn in Georgia would, for example, strengthen Europe’s energy security, while averting a Belarusian script in Moldova could pre-empt the beginning of another front in the fight against illegal migration.
European governments must recalibrate their financial support to these countries. alternatively than backing a wide variety of universalist causes, more funds should be allocated to initiatives and organizations that systematically undermine pro-Russian regimes or combat anti-European forces. This would importantly strengthen Europe’s hand vis-à-vis Moscow.
The information space is 1 crucial battleground. erstwhile the Trump administration cut Radio Free Europe’s (RFE) funding, the EU’s version of “stepping up” was to supply a five-million-euro emergency facility to keep the lights on. Much more is needed to support pro-European forces in Ukraine, Serbia, Georgia, Belarus, Moldova and elsewhere. Additional funds could be allocated from the generous budgets presently granted to national English-language media initiatives, specified as Deutsche Welle (over 400 million euros per year) and France Médias Monde (over 200 million), to support a European equivalent of RFE dedicated to advancing European interests.
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Countries in the continent’s neighbourhood without European ambitions are just as crucial to European stability, marketplace development, and the fight against illegal migration. improvement aid could better service European interests if it were deployed more pragmatically. In 2023, the EU and its associate states provided over 50 per cent more assistance to Central and South Asia than to North Africa. Between 2011 and 2023, EU governments provided over 25 billion euros in aid to South America. We besides proceed to fund bodies that actively undermine our interests – most late including the government of Laos, which supports the deployment of its citizens to fight in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
The continent has long been a global leader in per capita aid provision, working alongside the US and its allies to uphold an global order on a worldwide scale. As this strategy breaks down, Europe must focus improvement aid on its neighbourhood – where its impact is most tangibly aligned with European interests.
A stronger regional presence and greater control over key nodes would enhance our leverage over another regional powers, specified as Turkey, Israel and Saudi Arabia, facilitating more favourable migration agreements and energy and technology partnerships. Building a more assertive posture in the mediate East is besides crucial to mitigating the consequences of the US’ steady withdrawal from the region.
Still, the specified redirection of existing resources in line with a set of refreshed priorities is insufficient for lasting safety and prosperity in Europe. erstwhile it comes to Germany, for example, Russia’s monthly production of 200 cruise and ballistic missiles threatens a territory defended by only six American-made Patriot batteries – barely adequate to defend Berlin.
Europe is presently capable of rapidly deploying between 10,000 and 40,000 troops to defend against a conventional attack on its east Flank. They would be outnumbered ten to one, or worse.
So, a military Sword of Damocles hangs over the continent. In the worst-case scenario, especially if the US follows through on its often-claimed withdrawal, this threat alone could subject our societies to the Kremlin’s whims.
Expecting Europe in its current state to advance human rights, democracy, and freedom globally is thus a dangerous illusion. Defending these values on the continent alone stretches Europe’s current strength to its limits. Deeper organization changes are required to make certain resources are deployed more efficiently and at scale. This includes the merger of European armed forces into a single command structure, as well as the integration of Europe’s full defence industry.
Similarly, without more integrated financial markets, Europe will conflict to mobilize the funds essential for long-term rearmament and the expansion of its influence in the region. To hold European savings and build financial firepower, the continent must yet make a capital markets union.
At the basis of this renewal lie our political institutions. They are a key enabler of geopolitical power. European citizens largely support a more assertive Europe with an integrated abroad and safety policy. The task of a European army, too, is more popular than ever. Yet as the emergence of Eurosceptic movements and corresponding opinion polls show, Europeans will not accept specified a consolidation of power unless their control over this power expands as part of a democratic renewal. More democratic European institutions are not just desirable for their inherent merits – they are a crucial component of European security.
We must so learn to carry the moral burden of alleged “strategic autonomy”. This demands an unwavering commitment to the European values of freedom, democracy and human rights, but besides a reckoning with the fact that, for Europe, abroad policy has indeed become a “hierarchy of imperatives”.
In an increasingly lawless world, Europe is emerging as the last bastion of these ideals – surrounded by totalitarian and revisionist forces determined to make a planet in their own image. At the tail end of this long and undoubtedly painful transitional period, a fresh order will emerge. Its nature will be determined by what values last the present interregnum. Prioritizing scarce resources for the defence of our interests is so not a capitulation in the fight for a better world, but the only way to win it.
This article was first published in German by Swiss paper Neue Zürcher Zeitung
Arthur Kroen is simply a author and commentator whose work on European affairs and democratic movements has appeared in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, EUobserver, The Diplomat and others. His investigation at the University of Oxford focuses on the interaction between national identity and war in 19th century Europe. Follow him on X and LinkedIn.
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